Conveyer.



No. 856,527. PATENTED JUNE l1, 1907. W. T. JAMES.

GONVEYER. APPLIoATloN FILED AUG. 27. 190e.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

' WITNESSES INVENTOR ,4444/17 W APPLICATION FILED AUG. 27. 1906.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR /Lad/ No. 856,527. l PATENTED JUNE l1, 1907. W. T. JAMES. CONVEYER. APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 27. 190e.

4 SHEETS-SHEET a.

INVENTOR WITNESSES WWK@ y@ QM.

PATENTED JUNE 11, 1907. W. T. JAMES. CON VEYER. APPLIoATIoN FILED AUG. 2v. 190s.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

WILLLAM T. JAMES, or cIIIcAGo, ILLINOIS.

CONVEYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 11 1907.

Application and August 27,1906. serial No. 332,149.

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. JAMES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Conveyers, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to conveyers and particularly to conveyers for'handling coal and similar material, and the invention has for its objects ;`to provide an improved automatic machine for conveying the coal laterally and elevating it to a position from which it can'be delivered by gravity; to provide a horizontal conveying Inechanism adapted to operate continuously and effectively without clogging; to provide a flexible elevating conveyer having improved means for dumping the be moved to various positions without' disturbing the driving mechanism; to provide a liexible elevating conveyer provide with an independent top drive movable il; the plane of the conveyer for chan ing the position thereof; to provide a flexible chain conveyer with a plurality of driving means whereby such conveyer may be made a greater length than could otherwise be done7 and to provide a ilexible elevating conveyer with delivery mechanism which can be adjusted to deliver at any desired height and dump the buckets at such height. ne form of the device is shown in the accompanying drawings in which7 Figure l is a side elevation showing' the assembled mechanism7 Figure 2 is a front elevation of the mecharn ism shown in Figure 1, but with the driving mechanism at the bottom and top in section,

Figure 3 is a section through the structure of Figure l on the line 11i-111 of Figure 2 Figure 4 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a modified form of conveyer having a twopoint drive, and

Figure 5 is a front elevation of the con veyer shown in Figure 4.

My device is intended primarily for the handling of coal7 especially very fine coal, dust or slack, although the mechanism is obviously capable of handling other materials of similar nature, and consists in the main of the horizontal worin lconveying mechanism A, the chain conveyer B for carrying the coal from the trough C to which it is delivered by buckets; to provide al flexible elevat- I Ing conveyerprovided with adjusting means` whereb f the upper end of the .conveyer may veyer 'wagon or car.

theconveyer A, the two lower chain drivin means D and E, the upper driving means l* with its motor Gr, all mounted upon the track H for adjustment thereon, and the adjustable chute K into which loaded buckets are ada ted to be dumped and from which the coa may be fed by gravity to any desired receptacle or to a conveying means such as a' Describing the device more in detail and referring to the assembled views 1, 2, and 3,

the horizontal conveying mechanism A comprises two parallel screws 1-1 (Figure 2) leading from the source of supply, which may be at some distance from the elevatinr mechanism to the trough C from which the coal is to be carried upwardly by the chain con- B. These conveyer screws 1-1 are as shown, placed a slight distance apart and are rotated in opposite directions as indicated by the arrows, thereby feeding along the coal from two sides, which arrangement has been found to be more effective than a single screw in which there is a churning action lwithout a proper amount of forward feed of the coal. The worms or screws 11 are mounted upon the shafts 3 carrying bevel gears 4, which bevel gears 4 engage the bevel gears 5 on the drive shaft which is vdriven y mechanism which will be more fully described' hereafter.

The elevating mechanism in its preferred form (Fi res 1., 2,?and 3,) is triangularin shape an has three driving means or sprocketsD, E, and F, above referred to7 which sprockets are arranged alon the course of the conveyer so 'as to distri ute the strain throughout the chain. The conveyer B itself may be of any preferred construction but preferably comprises the two chain members 7-7 (Figure 2) spaced apart so that the buckets 8 mayswin g freely between them and are each composed of links 9-9 pivoted together at their ends in the usual way and carrying intermediate such pivot points the rollers 10 which rollers l() are engaged by the sprockets to drive the conveyer. These rollers also serve to lessen the sliding friction of the horizontal and left hand vflight or run of the conveyer by rolling upon the tracks 11 at the sides of the trough C (Figure 2) and upon the members 12 adjacent the left hand vertical run upon which members 12 the trough K ismounted. As before stated the upper driving means F is mounted for transverse movement and this IIO is accomplished by mounting the driving sprocket, motor and intermediate driving gear upon a wheeled truck 13 mounted upon the curved track H. The curve of this track is such that when the truck is moved to vak rious positions thereon the drive chain B will always have the same amount of tension, which fact is of course dueto the fact that the sum of thedistances from the center of the drive F to ythe centers of the drive D and sprocket 14 is always the same. The motor G has a belt connection to the pulley 15 and such pulley 15 is keyedto the shaft 16 carry ing keyed thereto, a spur gear 17 which meshes with the gear 18 on the drive shaft 19 which` shaft 1 9 carries the driving sprockets F over whichthe conveyer chains 7 pass. The under side of the track 13 is provided with a clamping means 21 for securing the truck rigidly in position upon the track H. The driving sprockets D are mounted upon the shaft 6 which drive shaft 6 also carries the gear 23 driven from the gear 24 on the shaft 25 carrying the pulley 26, which pulley 26 is driven from a motor (not shown) of any preferred form. The driving sprockets E are mounted on a shaft 27 and driven by means of the gear 28 onI such shaft, the pinion 29, the pulley 30, and a motor (not shown) belted thereto.

The construction of the buckets 8 and the means for dumping them will now be described reference being had particularly to Figures 1, 2, and 3. As here vshown the .buckets are of triangular shape and are pivoted near the bottom of one of the sidesintermediate the two chains of the conveyer, and the side of the bucketadjacent the pivot point is provided with the tripping member 32 which tripping member is adapted during its upward movement to engage the roller 33 on the chute K thereby tilting' the bucket to the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 3, in which position the coal is delivered upon the chute K from which it may be delivered by gravity in a pile upon the floor 34 or into a receptacle or transferring mechanism such as a car or wagon. In order that the bucket may not tilt backward between the chains, the stop members 35 are provided which are located below the point of pivotal support of the buckets and project across the chains and prevent backward movement notonly during the vertical movement of the bucket but also while such buckets are moving through the trough C. The chute K is mounted for vertical adjustment by virtue of the sliding engagement of the pins 36 between the members 12 and 12 and the chains 37-38 by means of which powerimay be applied to change the'position of the chute or by,L means of which the chute may be counterbalanced with weights. A sliding door 39 is provided in the floor 34 through which door, coal may be dumped and carried to an elevated position by means of the conveyer', and delivered to any desired point by a chute such as K or some other conveying mechanism. i

A modification of the construction is shown in Figures 4 and 5 in which the chain` B is driven at two points by means of the sprockets D and E and inwhich the chute. Kis pivoted on the bar 40 which is at an angle to the plane of the chain in order to avoid interference' therewith. This opnveyer may be arranged to act in conjunction with the other transferring mechanism in substantially the same manner as is done/in the preferred form of construction, but the 8o modified construction is not so desirable vas the length of the chain and number of buckets must, obviously, be less, and the filling of the buckets is not accomplished as readily and effectively as in the construction of F igure 1, for the reason that the buckets dotnet travel through the long trough C and hence l do not have the same opportunity to become lled in their limited period of travel through the coal trough. vlurthermore the construction is not so desirable as the space between the chains is less than in the preferred form and the operation of the chute is not as free as in the preferred form in which the triangular space is available for the manipulation of the chute K. The chute K of the modification may be moved bodily in a vertical direction in the same way as the chute K for the preferred form and the position of the end may be regulated independent of the bodily roo vertical movement by tilting the chute about its shaft 40. l

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following; p

l. In combination, conveying mechair ism comprising a trough, a triangular elevating conveyer rovided with sooo buckets and having a ower substantially liorizontal 1 io run in' the trough, and means for conveying the material to the end of the trough., in a direction opposite tol the movement of the buckets. l

2. In combination,` conveying mechanism comprising a trough, an elevating conveyer pro vided with a plurality of runs with scoop y uckets and having its lower run in the trough, and means for forcing the material into the end of the trough in a direction opposite to the movement of the buckets.

3. In combination, conveying mechanism comprising a receptacle, an elevating conveyer having a portion thereof in ,the receptacle, a chute adjustably mounted for movement longitudinally of one of the vertical l runs of the conveyer, buckets on the con.-' veyer, and automatic means for dumping the buckets into the chute.

4. In combination, conveying mechanism 13e ment longitudinally comprising a receptacle, an elevating con.

ortion thereof in the recepustably mounted for moveof one of the vertical runs of the conveyer, buckets pivoted to the conveyer and having projections whereby they may be tilted, and means on the chute veyer having a tacle, agchute a j `for engaging the projections to dump the buckets into the chute.

5. In, combination in conveyer mechanism, op posing llexible bucket supports, buckets pivoted therebetween at the sides, tilting projections on such sides and a longitudinally f adjustable projection adjacent one of the runs oted therebetween at the sides, tilting pro-' jections on the pivotedsides, stops on the buckets for engaging the chains to. prevent backward tilting of the buckets, and means adjacent one of the vertical runs for engaging the tilting projections to dump the buckets.

8. In combination in conveyer mechanism, a chain bucket carrier in substantially the form of a triangle, buckets thereon, and three sets of driving means arranged along the course of the carrier.

9. In combination in conveying mechanism, a receptacle, a triangular elevating conveyer provided with buckets and having its lower run in the receptacle, and a plurality of driving means for the lower run.

10. In combination in conveying mechanism, a receptacle, a triangular elevating conveyer yprovided with buckets and having its lower run in the receptacle, driving means at the up er apex of the triangle, and a plurality of riving means for the lower run.

11. In combination in conveying mechanism, an endless chain conveyer provided with buckets, a sprocket at the upper end of the conveyer and a curved track carrying the s rocket whereby it -may be adjusted latera ly in the plane of the conveyer.

12. In combination in conveying mechanism, an endless triangular chain .conveyer provided with buckets, a curved track at the top of the conveyer, and a sprocket drive and motor mounted for movement along the track.

In testimony whereof, I havel hereunto signed my name in the presence of the two subscribed witnesses.

wiLLIAM T. JAMES.

Witness:

.PAUL CARPENTER,

JAMES NICHOLAS LORENZ. 

